Join us at Anne and Mark’s Art Party & Opening Night Gala on September 24th. There will be 300+ exhibiting artists, live music, dance, spoken word, fire arts, fashion shows and food trucks. This event is at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in San José, California. Get your tickets in advance at: artpartysj.com

Kent will exhibit new works from three print series: Conditions narrate states of being and coping strategies. Nests is a series of one-of-a-kind experimental prints. Cells explores imaginary living organisms and microbiome.

Nanette will exhibit four images from On Longing, a series of 50 unique monoprints completed this last summer. Each print is a mandala which contemplates and celebrates the natural world. The series takes its name from Susan Stewart’s book: On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. The Art Party is discussed in the Mercury News, where Nan’s work is also featured.

Photo of the studio while the On Longing series was still in-progress, Spring 2016.

Meaning Maker is 10!
Of course, we are trying to make sense of the upcoming November election. Thus we have created a new and improved version of Meaning Maker U.S. Presidential Elections Edition. Download your free copy at the Meaning Maker website, and distribute as you will.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, U.S. Presidential Elections Edition was on exhibit and take away in Vote your Subconscious at Works/San José and will be exhibiting in: POLITICS (NOT) AS USUAL at Branner Spangenberg Gallery:275A Linden Street in Redwood City from Oct 7 – Nov 13, 2016.Opening Reception: Friday, Oct 7, 2016, 5:30 – 7:30pm.

This Summer we hand-delivered Art Viewing Experience Edition and U.S. Presidential Elections Edition to two significant events in Europe: The 9th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art in Berlin, Germany; and the opening of the Tate Modern Switch House in London. Other European museum and gallery locations which experienced bursts of Meaning Makers include: Brussels, Paris, Dresden and Prague.

Don Drake and Kate Jordahl invited Kent to write the afterword for Kate’sTrue North Editions, one poem book, no. 6, featuring Don’s poem, End. The book launch for one poem books no. 5 and no. 6 will be at Don Drake’s Studio, Dreaming Mind, on Saturday, October 8th from 2 – 4 pm. There will be readings! 5664 Sun Ridge Court in Castro Valley, CA.

Kent is also showing inAl-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here: In Defense of Culture at the San Francisco Main Library, Skylight Gallery, 100 Larkin Street, from September 17 – January 1, 2017.

The Future, an artists’ book collaboration between Nanette and Nora Raggio, will be showing the month of October in Words|Matter, Chicago.

Nanette’s Storyland v2 was invited for exhibition in Shapeshifting Texts, International Conference on Digital Media and Textuality in Bremen, Germany. Her print, Propagare, was exhibited at the Graphic Arts Workshop, Scuola Internaziale di Grafica in Venice, Italy; and she received a juror’s award for her needle felted book, Between Us Two, at The Art of the Book, Sebastopol Center for Art in Sebastopol, California.

On another note, we’ve decided to take an extended leave from facebook. We still want to hear about your Art Adventures, however. Our individual emails are the best way to let us know what you are doing. We continue to engage with instagram: @kent.manske @nanwylde

We are honored to participate in Valerie Raps last exhibition as curator of Art Ark. Her ten year tenure has launched Art Ark as an important San José art venue. Please come honor Valerie and her partner, Andrew Hedges, during the reception on May 6th.
Pictured is Kent’s Nest IVc.

March 5 – May 15, 2016
Museum of Contemporary Crafts & Multnomah County Library, both in Portland, Oregon.
Beau Beausoleil’s curatorial project which responds to the bombing of the booksellers’ street in Bagdad continues to inform, inspire and activate us.

Meaning Maker
We will be distributing our Control and U.S. Presidential Elections editions of Meaning Maker at: Open Engagement 2016 POWER, April 28 – May 1. This social practice conference is headquartered at the Oakland Museum of California and includes many additional sites throughout the Bay Area.

In early April, Nanette and Nora Raggio showed their book, The Future, in Space Jam at The Mission Creek Festival in Iowa City. Nanette is exhibiting in The Illustrated Accordion at TheKalamazoo Book Arts Center, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 6 – 27.

YAY! Here’s cheers to all of the springy art abounding in our universe.

We are excitedly paying attention to cultural metaphors and media trends because of this new Whirligig Interview with San José based artist, curator, and art educator Angelica Muro.

Muro has a B.A. in photography from San José State University, and an MFA from Mills College. She is currently Director and Chair of Visual and Public Art at California State University, Monterey where she teaches courses in photography, integrated media and media culture.

In this interview Muro talks about the influences of media in our daily lives, teaching today’s college students, narco-culture, audience, curating and collaboration.

Her newest project, created with Juan Luna-Avin, Club Lido: Wild Eyes & Occasional Dreams opened February 12 at Empire Seven Studios in San José.

Here we are again, making our solstice card and greeting you on the longest night of the year. These cycles–they mean something to us. Most notably they provide us an opportunity to let you know how much we appreciate you, who are among the lights in our lives. We are thankful that we have the privilege to make, to share, and to be well.

May the force be with you. Live long and prosper. Peace on Earth.
With love and lightness,
Kent, Nanette, Jazpur and Smudge

We are pleased to announce a new Weekend Residency in the Print Studios project by writer and photographer Jeff Evans.

Jeff came to his residency just days after the June 17, 2015 mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. As a member of the Charleston community, Jeff was deeply affected by this event. He participated in and documented many community support gatherings–memorials, services, vigils, and political actions.

His residency project, SWIRL, is a handbound artist’s book. It is also available via Hunger Button Books as a print-on-demand edition.

SWIRL is a creative reflection juxtaposing photographs, texts, local newspapers; and acts as a memorial for both the victims and Charleston community.

Whirligig is feeling the buzz
with a new interview:MicroClimate Collective is the curatorial project of Glenna Cole Allee and Victoria Mara Heilweil. In this interview they share their insights into the Bay Area Art Scene, discuss the concepts and challenges that go into curating diverse exhibitions, and reveal insights into their own creative processes and interests.
Read it here:whirligig.hungerbutton.org

The Undercurrents Portfolio which Kent organized last year has found three institutional homes in the Bay Area: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, The Oakland Museum of California, and The Peninsula Museum of Art. Many thanks to each of these for acquiring this rich and diverse portfolio of Bay Area printmakers.

We have been hungrily working on three new projects for Mooncakes, Churros, and Cherry Pie which opens today at the Euphrat Museum in Cupertino, California. It is feeling like we just ate a whole box of designer chocolate truffles.

February 2 – March 19
Reception: Febraury 18, 5:30 – 7:30 pm.
See the Museum website for the full schedule of events associated with this exhibition.

One of our new projects is a Meaning Maker: Food Edition. Download your copy from the Meaning Maker website.

Paul Davies‘ (Whirligig Interview, March 2013) opera, Carlota, will be performed Sunday, February 15th, at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose, CA.

The opera is directed by Daniel Helfgot with Barbara Day Turner conducting the ensemble. Soprano Christine Capsuto sings the title role of Carlota, Stephen Guggenheim, tenor, is Maximiliano, and mezzo-soprano Kayleigh Decker is Carlota’s handmaiden, Sara.

Kent is engaged in a new public art project creating four entry signs for the North Fair Oaks area (Unicorporated San Mateo County between Atherton/Menlo Park and Redwood City) where we abide as PreNeo Press. The 10 foot tall metal figures will represent the people who live and work in the community. Here’s an article on redevelopment of Middlefield Road including a video interview of Kent in the studio: Identity in infrastructure: North Fair Oaks banks on road project to revitalize area

Undercurrents, a themed portfolio of original prints by fifteen Bay Area artists has recently been acquired by The Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

In early December Nanette gave a LASER talk (Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous) at U.C. Davis.

We welcome you to join us New Year’s Day for Open House at PreNeo Press in Redwood City, 1 – 6 pm.
• Soup on the Stove
• Cheer in the Air
• Art Project in the Studio

A survey of artwork by our own printmaker and book artist Kent Manske, who processes the world through the creation of personal visual narratives and symbols. Full color. Paperback.

Diane Cassidy: Responding to aMuse with an introduction by Jade Bradbury & interview by Nanette Wylde.

In this oeuvre, which spans thirty years of capturing the world as seen through the lens of photographer and maker of artists’ books, Diane Cassidy, she demonstrates a consistent vision sparked by humor, wit, intelligence, and a keen sensibility that makes us think, undermines our equilibrium and forces us to look at things from a different perspective. Full color. Paperback.

Kent & Nanette are both exhibiting in (This is Ourselves) Under Pressure! at 1890 Bryant Street Studios in San Francisco. This exhibition is in conjunction with Paper on the Press 2014 a conference co-hosted by The American Printing History Association, Friends of Dard Hunter, and The San Francisco Center for the Book. The exhibition was curated by Anne Beck.

Nanette is showing artists’ books, electronic flipbooks and net.art in Book Art Art Book at the Crawford Campus Center Gallery, The Episcopal Academy, Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. This exhibition was curated by Susan Coote and runs through October.

Also showing through October is an exhibition curated by Nanette of books by Bay Area Book Artists at the Menlo Park Library in Menlo Park, California.

There is a dizzying schedule of printmaking events and activities in the Bay Area this week associated with the Southern Graphics Council (SGCI) printmaking conference, March 25 – 29. Below are several opportunities to see our new work. For conference schedule visit Bridges SGCI Schedule.

We hope to see you.
Kent & Nanette

Undercurrents

Undercurrents, a group portfolio Kent curated is exhibited at the Peninsula Museum of Art through June 8.SGCI Reception: Thursday, March 27, 5-7 pm.Public Reception: Sunday March 30, 1- 4 pm.

The Mission Art Walk is a self-guided walk takes place Saturday evening, March 29, 2014, from 6 to 9 p.m. and includes 17 different venues, all featuring printmaking and works on paper. Here’s a pdf map.

Whirligig is waxing poetic over a new interview with San Francisco-based poet and bookseller, Beau Beausoleil.

Beausoleil is the founder of The al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition, a multi-faceted, global response to the March 2007 car bombing of Bagdad’s historic bookseller’s street and the center of intellectual and literary culture in Bagdad.

In this interview, Beausoleil talks about poetry, writing, bookstores, and The al Mutanabbi Street Coalition as an act of witness.

On March 5th, the anniversary of the bombing, there will be poetry readings all over the world. Look for a reading in your area, or, in the spirit of creative community and witness, start your own.

PreNeo Press is dancing in the streets and putting on the Ritz with the launch of CSI: Las Vegas.

CSI = Cultural Spectacle Investigation.

CSI: Las Vegas is the second in a series of urban photographic explorations which result in full color, print-on-demand, artists’ books. CSI: Las Vegas was created by Kent Manske and Nanette Wylde. It is published by Hunger Button Books.

We hope you can visit the exhibition, but if not you can visit the Meaning Maker website and download all of the Meaning Maker editions to experience in the privacy of your own home.

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Nanette’s book On Judgment: the book of bully created for An Inventory of Al-Mutanabbi Street will be exhibited in New York City at:Columbia University Libraries
Butler Library
535 West 114th St.
July 16-September 21, 2013

This is an amazing project curated by Beau Beausoleil and Sarah Bodman. It involves 260+ artists and their responses to the bombing of Al-Mutanabbi Street, a historic location for booksellers, tea houses and the heart and soul of the Baghdad literary and intellectual community, in 2007.

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Both Kent and Nanette are included in the upcoming 500 Handmade Books, Volume Two, Published by Lark Books and curated by Julie Chen. This book is due to be available in September.

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In June, the Earth • Science • Art exhibition curated by Lisa Hochstein last year traveled to USGS headquarters in Reston, Virginia.

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We are developing a web presence and network for Bay Area printmakers and print studios. We will provide you more info on this later. For now: Please email us contact information for Bay Area print artists and studios.

Whirligig is singing all over the place after publishing this interview with composer, music educator, and concert pianist, Paul Davies who recently completed his first full length opera. The opera, Carlota, is based on the life of Charlotte of Belgium who was Empress Carlota of Mexico during the period in Mexican history known as the French Intervention.

PreNeo Press is out of the doll house over a new Whirligig Interview with Bay Area photographer and artist Diane Cassidy. Cassidy celebrates her 82nd birthday this month with the showing of a new series of photographs at the annual San Francisco Altered Barbie show, and the launch of her first website.